Alwar: Villagers laid trap to nab cow smugglers, caught Akbar

Sumedha Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Gurugram, July 24

In a twist to the alleged lynching of 28-year-old Akbar Khan, Lalwandi villagers have confessed in front of enquiry committee, headed Director General of Police (Law & Order) N R K Reddy, that an "attack" was planned to nab alleged cow smugglers who had been frequenting their fields since past fortnight. 

Land owners of Lalwandi village said since last 15 days their fields were being trespassed into and misused to smuggle cows. They had asked 'Gau Rakshaks' to set up a "trap" and nab cow smugglers and hand them over to police. 

A local VHP Leader, Naval Kishore, has been named as one who informed police of lynching in the FIR. He was the first one to accuse cops of having thrashed and killed Akbar. 

So far, there was no clear explanation to what Naval Kishore and 'Gau Rakshaks' were doing in the deserted fields. The answer came from the villagers who claimed that ever since vigilance was stepped up on roads, cow smugglers used fields to walk animals across the border every night. To curb the menace, villagers said, they had sought help from the 'Rakshaks', who stood waiting there.

"They were cattle smugglers and we were sure that it was fourth time in 15 days that they had walked through our fields which is shortcut to a nearby Meo village. If they were cattle buyers, why did they wait till midnight to set out as they could have done so during the day or in the evening," said a man who owns a field where Akbar was allegedly attacked.

"For the past few days, we were noticing footprints of men and cows in our fields. We had spotted armed men with animals but at that hour just one or two people manning the fields could not dare to confront them. So we sought help from 'Gau Rakshaks' to get the smugglers arrested. This field was chosen because this was our area. Had the smugglers managed to cross nobody could touch them in their Meo villages," he added.

The 'Gau Rakhsa' activists were summoned and they lay in waiting, presumably to ensure that the "smugglers" were caught before they entered "their own" area. Akbar, who had reportedly bought two cows from the neighbouring village of Khanpur and was walking them home to Ferozpur Jhirka with Aslam ran into the mob that lay waiting for "smugglers".

"Even police cannot touch them if they cross this village as the Meos would go to any extent to shield smugglers. Even authorities cannot enter these villages so we had to seek help of locals to stop them from trespassing into our fields. 'Gau Rakshaks' beat them up to teach them a lesson. After this, they have them clothes before handing them to the police. Nobody was killed in these fields," said GR Yadav, another farm owner.

According to sources, ASI Mohan Singh, who has been suspended, was taking Akbar to police station along with the VHP leader to book him for smuggling when he died.

Lynching unjustified but so is smuggling: BJP MLA

"Lynching is unjustified but so is smuggling. You can't imagine the menace of armed cattle smuggling in this area people have no choice but to guard own villages and cattle," Ramgarh MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja said.

"This is last Hindu majority village and if you fail to catch smugglers here and they cross over to 'their' villages you can't catch them. Cow smuggling is big menace here with hundreds of cows being stolen and taken away. With more vigilance by Rakshaks on roads these smugglers have started using fields leaving residents scared. The man (Akbar) was not killed by farmers or Gau Rakshaks but they did their job by catching him and calling police who allegedly killed him," Ahuja claimed.